You know that saying "they will grow up right before your very eyes..."? Yea, well... Payton is about to grow up right before YOUR very eyes. Because the last time I posted was forever ago about one of her FIRST birthday celebrations. Friends, she is 2 and a half now. I have to get caught up here. Thank goodness for taking tons of pictures to help me remember things. I have written down all the posts that I want to get done and I even have them written in my blogging calendar. (Yep I have a calendar for my blogging. It was created for my teaching blog but I am using it for both blogs now so I can try to stay on top of things here.)

In fact... you are about to see her go from this..

To this... (and beyond by the time we catch up here)

The last time I wrote we were celebrating Payton's birthday in Buffalo about a month after her actual birthday. That summer (2012) was a whirlwind. My aunt was diagnosed with lung cancer and not doing well. When we were in Buffalo that July we were lucky enough to see her. I am grateful that we got to see her one more time before things got bad... which was just a day or two after we saw her. In fact, the day we were at the family reunion I last posted about we thought was going to be her last day... multiple times. It wasn't.We left Buffalo just a few days later. She lost the battle to cancer in August, which meant we were headed to Buffalo again. It was rough. Probably one of the toughest things I have experienced. But having a cute daughter to cheer you up helps.

Payton stayed busy playing in my Aunt Susie's yard and on her trampoline. I mentioned before how much I love it in Silver Creek... Payton takes after me!

Clear the road folks!

Mowing the... dirt?

Look at that baby fat!

Tim ended up winning tickets to a Bills preseason game and we decided to go to try to cheer me up. It was a nice break from the reality of everything that happened and it was nice to see some of my best friends- Jackie and Jarrett. (Those pics will be in another post.)

Get ready friends... because you are about to see Payton go from a tiny little 1 year old to a 2.5 year old little girl... who even made her first trip to Disney!